Food Formations Rio de Janeiro

Collect(ive) Rio is a research-design studio that establishes Rio de Janeiro as a case study for exploration and archiving. Rio is a city where we uncover our own stories and experiences. The semester was split into two components. The first was to “sense from afar”: research and projects began at a distance. We had the opportunity to visit Rio and “from within” our sites began to emerge. Preconceptions and concepts were forced to transform, thus providing a fertile opportunity to iterate, change and explore among other mediums.

The Ministry of Education and Health (MES) was the first modernist public building in the Americas, and has become an emblem of Brazil’s modernity and progress. Progress has always been understood through the attempts of building, ordering, controlling and preserving. After 74 years the aspirations for progress need to change. Building materials have long been restored and replaced. What are the merits of holding on to this sentiment? What if progress is measured through the active investment of the values and the people in which the building holds? Rather than the futile and expensive attempts to freeze the container, a monument which has long past its relevance. The architectural proposal enables a space in which the collective with support from official powers can rewrite the authorship of progress.

The archive does not exist in the production nor the consumption of food but within the ephemeral nature of conversations, which spreads and disseminates over food as a medium.

The restaurant performs as a foundation for the new Ministry of Health and Education. Returning to its roots and core intentions the restaurant design utilizes the building’s current condition. Mediating at the fence the restaurant hinges towards the public and street life.